Interview with the Son of Aung San Suu Kyi: Kim Aris

Jul 12, 2024 | Aung San Suu Kyi is known as the mother of Myanmar. Her tireless quest for democracy saw her spend decades under house arrest but eventually when the military junta allowed elections in 2015 she rose to power. However, a subsequent military coup in 2021 led to her arrest and disappearance. In this edition of the Newsmakers, we speak to her son, Kim Aris, about his mother's condition and the fight for democracy in Myanmar that the world seems to have forgotten.

Guest: Kim Aris Youngest Son of Aung San Suu Kyi

Aung San Suu Kyi's Partial Pardon Means 'Nothing,' Says Son

Aug 3, 2023 | A partial pardon by Myanmar's ruling military of jailed former leader Aung San Suu Kyi means ‘absolutely nothing,’ her younger son Kim Aris said, calling on Western governments to do more to step up pressure on the junta.

Myanmar junta's partial pardon of Suu Kyi means 'absolutely nothing', says son »

Related video here.

Myanmar Junta Pardons Ousted Leader Aung San Suu Kyi, Ex-President Win Myint after Postponing Polls

Aug 1, 2023 | Myanmar’s military junta issued a partial pardon for the country’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi on August 1, 2023. The junta’s governing body dropped five of the 19 offences for which she was convicted and cut her 33-year jail term by six years. Ex-president Win Myint also had his sentence reduced by four years. But both will reportedly remain in detention.

Myanmar’s Junta Condemned over Guilty Verdicts in Aung San Suu Kyi Trial

THE GUARDIAN: First verdicts announced in cases against Myanmar’s former leader, who was deposed in a coup in February

Aung San Suu Kyi. Photograph: Christophe Archambault/AFP/Getty Images
A military court in Myanmar has found Aung San Suu Kyi guilty of incitement and breaking Covid restrictions, drawing condemnation from the United Nations, European Union and others, who described the verdicts as politically motivated.

The 76-year-old, who was deposed in a coup in February, is set to serve two years in detention at an undisclosed location, a sentence reduced from four years after a partial pardon from the country’s military chief, state TV reported.

The court in the capital Naypyidaw was delivering its first verdicts in numerous cases brought against Aung San Suu Kyi that have previously been described by her lawyer as absurd.

“The conviction of the state counsellor following a sham trial in secretive proceedings before a military-controlled court is nothing but politically motivated,” UN human rights chief, Michelle Bachelet, said. » | Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent | Monday, December 6, 2021

En Birmanie, la junte militaire inflige sa première condamnation à Aung San Suu Kyi : Condamnée à quatre ans de prison, l’ancienne dirigeante qui s’était opposée au coup d’Etat militaire du 1er février est sous le coup de nombreuses autres inculpations. »

Myanmars Militärjunta macht Aung San Suu Kyi politisch mundtot: Mindestens zwölf Anklagepunkte liegen gegen die einstige Ikone der myanmarischen Demokratiebewegung, Aung San Suu Kyi, vor. In einem ersten Verfahren ist sie am Montag zu vier Jahren Haftstrafe verurteilt worden. Stunden später wurde die Strafe auf zwei Jahre reduziert. Die Bevölkerung Myanmars versinkt abermals in Armut. »

Birmanie : Aung San Suu Kyi condamnée à 4 ans de prison, la peine réduite de moitié par la junte : Un tribunal birman a condamné lundi l'ex-cheffe du gouvernement civil pour incitation aux troubles publics et violation des règles sanitaires liées au Covid-19. La junte annoncé plus tard dans la journée une réduction de cette peine. »

Inside Story - Who Deserves the Nobel Peace Prize?

It’s anyone’s guess who will win this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.

No less than 318 people and organisations are nominated. The nominations are supposed to be secret but on the list are expected to be the White Helmets search and rescuers in Syria, Pope Francis and Donald Trump.

Previous winners have been controversial, including Trump's predecessor Barack Obama, Vietnam war diplomat Henry Kissinger - and now Aung San Suu Kyi.

With hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims escaping the army campaign in Myanmar, critics are questioning how the 1991 Nobel Laureate can remain silent.

Who are the other questionable winners from the past?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan | Guests: Fredrik Heffermehl - Author of 'Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted'; Rohan Jayasekera - Journalist and Editor at Vivarta digital media news organization; Azeem Ibrahim - Center for Global Policy & author of 'The Rohingyas: Inside Myanmar's Hidden Genocide'

Inside Story: Will Aung San Suu Kyi Do Something to Halt the Violence in Myanmar?

Global pressure is mounting on Myanmar and its leader Aung San Suu Kyi to end the killing and displacement of Muslim Rohingya.

The United Nations has urged the government to take "immediate steps" to stop the violence. Secretary General Antonio Guterres called the killings "Catastrophic" and "completely unacceptable".

He says the Myanmar military should suspend its operation in the western Rakhine state and allow Rohingya to return to their villages.

At least 400,000 people have fled to Bangladesh since the violence escalated late last month. So, as more Rohingya flee to Bangladesh, what will it take to stop this violence?

Presenter: Jane Dutton | Guests: Phil Robertson - Deputy Asia Director, Human Rights Watch; Maung Zarni - Visiting Fellow on Myanmar at the London School of Economics and founder of the Free Burma Coalition; Abdul Rasheed - Founder and Chairman at the Rohingya Foundation Community

THE DEBATE - Burma and the Rohingyas: UN Body Accuses Authorities of Ethnic Cleansing

A textbook case of ethnic cleansing says the UN's top human rights official. Nearly 400,000 Rohingyas have fled Burma in the past fortnight for neighboring Bangladesh after skirmishes between local militants and authorities triggered a fierce backlash. The plight of the Rohingyas has stirred indignation across the Muslim world in places like Indonesia and Turkey's First Lady dispatched to Bangladesh to support relief efforts. So what should the wider international community do?

Aung San Suu Kyi's Fall from Grace? – BBC Newsnight

What is Aung San Suu Kyi's responsibility for the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar? Mark Urban reports.

Telegraph View: Suu Kyi Lets Us Down

Aung San Suu Kyi

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi's equivocal attitude towards the violence against Burma’s Muslim minority threatens to tarnish her reputation

The hardships endured by Aung San Suu Kyi during her long struggle against Burma’s dictators and her 15 years of house arrest almost defy comprehension. After all that suffering, it would be tragic if her reputation were to be tarnished just as she stands on the verge of becoming her country’s president in the 2015 election. Sadly, Miss Suu Kyi’s equivocal attitude towards the violence against Burma’s Muslim minority threatens to do exactly that. Read on and comment » | Telegraph View | Thursday, October 24, 2013

Aung San Suu Kyi's Struggle Commemorated with Honorary Oxford Degree
THE GUARDIAN: Burmese opposition leader returns to the city where she raised a family to receive honorary doctorate from her alma mater

Oxford embraced a daughter whose silence had "sounded louder than the jabber of politics and clang of military power" as Aung San Suu Kyi received an honorary degree at the university on Wednesday.

Twenty-four years after leaving its spires and bridges for isolation in Rangoon, the Burmese pro-democracy leader returned the city that was, for almost as many years, her home.

Her homecoming, she told academics, dignitaries and students in the city's Sheldonian Theatre, brought "many strands" of her life together – "the years I spent as a student at St Hugh's, the years spent at Park Town as wife and mother, and the years spent under house arrest when the University of Oxford stood up and spoke up for me."

She said: "During the most difficult years, I was upheld by memories of Oxford: those were among the most important inner resources that helped me to cope with the all the challenges I had to face."

Her speech, at the end of a two-hour-long ceremony, rich in pomp, to receive the honorary doctorate in civil law awarded while she was detained in 1993, brought the audience to its feet to deliver a two-minute standing ovation. » | Caroline Davies | Wednesday, June 20, 2012

Aung San Suu Kyi Gives Nobel Speech in Norway, 21 Years Later


Read the article and watch more videos here | Laura Smith-Spark | CNN | Saturday, June 16, 2012
Related »

Suu Kyi Accepts Nobel Peace Prize 21 Years Late
REUTERS.COM: Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi finally accepted her 1991 Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo on Saturday after spending a total of 15 years under house arrest and said full political freedom in her country was still a long way off.

"Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal," Suu Kyi said in her acceptance speech during her first trip to Europe in nearly 25 years.

"Hostilities have not ceased in the far north; to the west, communal violence resulting in arson and murder were taking place just several days before I started out the journey that has brought me here today."

Suu Kyi, the Oxford University-educated daughter of General Aung San, Myanmar's assassinated independence hero, advocated caution about transformation in Myanmar, whose quasi-civilian government continues to hold political prisoners.

"There still remain such prisoners in Burma. It is to be feared that because the best known detainees have been released, the remainder, the unknown ones, will be forgotten," Suu Kyi, 66, told a packed Oslo City Hall.

A day earlier, she arrived from Switzerland to a jubilant reception as dancing and chanting crowds filled Oslo's streets and showered her with flowers. » | Balazs Koranyi | OSLO | Saturday, June 16, 2012

Nobelpreisträgerin Suu Kyi bereist Europa

Oppositionsführerin Suu Kyi in Genf
Burmas Oppositionsführerin Aung San Suu Kyi ist zum Auftakt ihrer Europareise in Genf eingetroffen. Die Friedensnobelträgerin wird am Abend mit Aussenminister Didier Burkhalter zusammentreffen und über die Lage in Burma sprechen.

Burma: Aung San Suu Kyi 'Wins Seat' in Historic Election

THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi's party claims she has won a seat in Burma's parliament after Sunday's historic election, setting the stage for her to hold public office for the first time.

The victory, if confirmed, marks a major milestone in the Southeast Asian nation, where the military has ruled almost exclusively for a half-century and where the government is now seeking legitimacy and a lifting of Western sanctions.

The victory claim was displayed on a digital signboard above the opposition National League for Democracy's headquarters in Rangoon.

Earlier, the party said in unofficial figures that Ms Suu Kyi was ahead with 65 per cent of the vote in 82 of her constituency's 129 polling stations. Read on and comment » | Dean Nelson | Rangoon | Sunday, April 01, 2012

My comment:

If anyone deserves to win in this election, this lady does. She has suffered and struggled. My heartfelt congratulations to her. – © Mark

This comment also appears here

Clinton Wraps Up Myanmar Visit
Dec. 2 - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi speak to media. Julie Noce reports.

Burma: Gemeinsam für Demokratie

FRANKFURTER ALLGEMEINE: Die amerikanische Außeministerin Hillary Clinton war sichtlich bewegt, als sie Aung San Suu Kyi die Hand schütteln durfte – noch dazu an dem Ort, wo die Friedensnobelpreisträgerin in Hausarrest saß.

So hatte man das Seehaus der „Lady“, diesen fast ikonographischen Ort der Unterdrückung, noch nie gesehen. Im sonst verwaisten Garten saßen Dutzende Journalisten auf herbeigeschafften Möbeln und warteten auf das ungewöhnliche Paar. Als Aung San Suu Kyi und ihr hoher Gast aus Amerika, Außenministerin Clinton, auf die Terrasse traten, stürzten Kameraleute und Fotografen auf Stühle und Tische, um den historischen Moment einzufangen. Nichts erzählt mehr über die neue Lage in Burma als das Bild vom ungestörten Zusammentreffen dieser Frauen. » | Jochen Buchsteiner, Jakarta | Freitag 02. Dezember 2011

Aung San Suu Kyi Reunited with Her Son
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's pro-democracy leader, has been reunited with her son who[m] she last saw a decade ago.


In an emotional moment at the Yangon airport, 10 days after her release from detention, Ms Suu Kyi met Kim Aris, 33, who was finally granted a visa by the military regime after waiting for several weeks in neighbouring Thailand.

Just before walking into the airport terminal, the 65-year old Ms Suu Kyi, who was released earlier this month after more than seven years under house arrest, said: "I am very happy."

A smiling Ms Suu Kyi slipped her arm around her son's waist as the two posed briefly for photographers.

Through her lawyer Nyan Win, Ms Suu Kyi thanked the Burmese authorities for issuing the visa to her son, who resides in Britain and last saw his mother in December 2000. He has repeatedly been denied visas ever since by the ruling junta. >>> | Tuesday, November 23, 210

Suu Kyi Wants To Meet Myanmar Junta Leader
THE GLOBE AND MAIL: Myanmar's chief democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi says she wants to meet the leader of the country's military junta to "let him speak first" about the country's political deadlock.

In a telephone interview Friday with The Globe and Mail, Ms. Suu Kyi said she wants to hold talks with Senior General Than Shwe but wouldn't go into them with a list of demands.

"What I want to do is just start talking. I'd like to let him speak first. Dialogue is not just about what you want to say," she said, speaking from Rangoon, the capital of Myanmar.

The interview was the first Ms. Suu Kyi has given to a Canadian newspaper since she was released from house arrest on Saturday.

She said she was "exhausted" at the end of her first week of freedom, which was filled with meetings with her supporters in Myanmar and abroad, phone calls to family members she hasn't seen in years and a visit to a Rangoon home for HIV/AIDS sufferers.

Ms. Suu Kyi, who has been under detention for 14 of the past 20 years, said she has been surprised and impressed with the level of political involvement among the younger generation in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma.

Earlier this week, the 65-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate called for a "peaceful revolution" in her country. >>> Mark MacKinnon | Friday, November 19, 2010

Watch video: Suu Kyi says Myanmar still under junta's iron grip: Myanmar's democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi says her release from house arrest is not a sign that the military junta is softening its grip on the country. She spoke Thursday to The Associated Press. >>> AP | Thursday, November 18, 2010

THE GLOBE AND MAIL – EDITORIAL: Outwitting the junta with Aung San Suu Kyi >>> | Monday, November 15, 2010

THE GLOBE AND MAIL: The Lady from Burma >>> Karen Connelly | Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Forderung nach Demokratie für Burma
Tausende verfolgen die erste Rede der freigekommenen Dissidentin Suu Kyi
NZZ ONLINE: In Rangun ist der aus dem Hausarrest entlassenen Aung San Suu Kyi von ihren Anhängern ein euphorischer Empfang bereitet worden. In ihrer ersten Rede seit sieben Jahren lud sie die demokratischen Kräfte zur Zusammenarbeit ein.

Die Schattenplätze waren bereits am frühen Sonntagmorgen vergeben. Die Menschenmasse vor dem Parteigebäude der National League for Democracy (NLD) stieg stetig an, bis gegen 11 Uhr Tausende am Boden sassen, viele mit selber gebastelten Schildern. Eines zeigt Suu Kyi mit Heiligenschein. Gleichzeitig verteilten Jugendliche Zettel mit der Aufschrift «Our mother» und «We love Suu». Als ihr weisses Auto vorfuhr, liessen sich die Emotionen kaum mehr zurückhalten. Das Fahrzeug kam nur im Schritttempo vorwärts. Die Menschen klatschten, weinten, schrien. Zunächst verschwand die «Lady» hinter dem roten Gittertor, um Parteifreunde und ausländische Diplomaten zu begrüssen. Ihre Anhänger hatten mehr als sieben Jahre darauf gewartet, ihr Idol wieder zu hören, da spielte eine weitere Stunde Ausharren in der feuchtheissen Hitze keine Rolle. Die uniformierte Polizei verfolgte das Geschehen aus Distanz. Näher heran gingen die zivilen Schnüffler, die das Publikum filmten. >>> m. e. Rangun | Montag, 15. November 2010